What movies are you watching?

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[epilogue]

Wiener-Dog is Todd Solondz's best movie to date.

How dark is it? Happiness dark, or Welcome to the Dollhouse dark?

Not Happiness dark. More like Dark Horse dark. It's really amazing, though. I cried so many times.

Never saw that one either, but I get ya. I'm intrigued by what I've seen from Wiener-Dog, but also a little scared. I've only seen Dollhouse (loved it), Happiness (respect it, but it made me feel pretty shitty), and Storytelling (it was fine, but I should watch it again).

Storytelling is my favorite of his films that I've seen so far. With Happiness is a close second.

I remember enjoying Storytelling, but can't remember specifics. I think it sort of reminded me of The Shape of Things (Neil Labute), in that it carried the director's trademark darkness, but was also intelligent and didn't make me feel to crappy. But I can't remember a thing about the plot.

It didn't make me feel as icky as Happiness, but it made me more uncomfortable than Happiness. If that makes sense. There's one moment of tension/suspense in Storytelling that wrecked me. I've never been so tight and wound up and anxious and in need of a moment to resolve as I was watching that moment.

It also made me laugh in a way that Happiness didn't. Storytelling is masterful. I know VG loves the word "masterpiece" and I try not to use it often, but for me, Storytelling is Todd's masterpiece. It's everything I love about him as a filmmaker.

[CopperTom]

I watched Birdman last night. I really liked the long cuts. There were less cuts in that movie than in a 2 minute Michael Bay action sequence.

[Orpheus]

Hunt for the Wilderpeople was excellent. Charming, funny, and had some great music as well. Now I want to see What We Do in the Shadows even more.

[Rangi Guy]

Hunt for the Wilderpeople was excellent. Charming, funny, and had some great music as well. Now I want to see What We Do in the Shadows even more.

[dimejinky99]

Nice guys.

It's good fun. Good chemistry between Gosling and Crowe.

[Rangi Guy]

The Wave - what a great film!

[LoathedVermin72]

The Wave - what a great film!

[E.H. Ruddock]

Still need to see that

[Simple Torture]

I re-watched both Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood this week; still love both. Boogie Nights seems bloated in parts but I'm not sure what I'd cut down on; TWBB is just excellent all around.

[VinylGuy]

Holidays.

Man, pretty much all of this shorts were really, really bad.

[dimejinky99]

Watched Eye in the sky last night. Really great film and performances all round. Really heavy and intense though. Moral dilemma on a grand scale but done well without being preachy or overbearing.

[Simple Torture]

I mentioned earlier in this thread that my wife has been recording Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. Here are my rankings for the ones we've watched:

1. Family for Christmas - A woman accidentally casts a Christmas wish to a pan-handling Santa Claus and she's transported to an altrnate reality where she didn't leave her boyfriend ten years before. Instead of being a high-powered news anchor, she's a suburban housewife with two kids. This movie drove my wife insane, because once the protagonist got used to her new life, she constantly tried to expand her role ("Maybe I'll get a part-time job...maybe I'll do this instead") her husband would say, "But you've got to watch the kids!" and she would just fold. I'm pretty woke so it also bugged me, but watching my wife flip out at this was hilarious. There's also this really off-color scene (for a Hallmark Channel movie) where the lead starts to giggle when she realizes that her husband is going to give her the D.

2. Christmas Land - A woman inherits her mother's kitchy Christmas-themed shopping center, but she's not into Christmas as much as everybody else, so she sells it. But, oh no!--she learns that the buyer is actually going to tear it down and build a shopping mall. She then has to raise the money to buy it back from him (she sold it for $1.5 million, and the investor wants $3 million to flip it). This would have fallen a few spots if the evil business guy wasn't played by Richard effing Karn, who is the real winner--he made a million and a half dollars because the main character was an idiot! Free market, motherfuckers.

3. A Royal Christmas - A woman from Philadelphia (there are a bunch of references to Rocky and to how the Phillies suck) falls in love with a foreign guy, and after they date for a while he reveals to her that he's actually a prince from a fictional European city-state. He invites her home for Christmas where she meets his mother, the queen, who--you won't believe this--doesn't want her son marrying a commoner. Obviously, they change her heart in the end, and it's pretty forgettable, until it's revealed that the queen has been fucking her butler for years, which is her impetus for accepting her son's choice. There's also a hilarious scene where the heroine and her boyfriend meet an orphan girl, and the lead convinces the prince to do something nice to for her, and instead of lifting her out of poverty (he has more money than God), he buys a Christmas tree from her.

4. Christmas Detour - What a weird, weird movie. A woman is flying from California to New York City to meet her WASP-y fiance's parents for Christmas, but her flight has to land in Buffalo and Mecca kills her and shoves her in a freezer in his basement. Just kidding, she gets in a rental car with three other people from her flight: a couple and a handsome man. Not surprisingly, she and the guy form a bond over the trip (even though they're not compatible at first!) and they slow dance together, wander through winter landscapes, and nearly kiss before being cockblocked by some carolers. But no, no, she can't do anything else, she's engaged! (Even though she's been lying to her fiance on the phone about who she's with, and even though she keeps putting herself in these compromising situations) Then, of course, when she gets to NYC she realizes her fiance isn't "the one" and gives her ring back, then spends Christmas with a guy she met 36 hours before. WTF? There's also a useless subplot about how Handsome Man's brother once stole a girl away from him (which is exactly what he's doing to this other guy, of course).

5. Let It Snow - A woman is supposed to scout a ski resort for her father to buy and gut, but when she gets there she falls in love with the place (and with one of its resident Handsome Men), so she convinces dad to leave it alone. Pretty forgettable, except Alan Thicke plays the father.

[dimejinky99]

Christmas in July.

Are you a Luddite?

[Simple Torture]

I know what a "luddite" is, but I have no idea why you would ask that.

[BurtReynolds]

haha who the hell knows

[LoathedVermin72]

There's a really wonderful movie at Fantasia right now called Man Underground. I loved it. I really hope it gets distribution; it'll be a crime if it doesn't. Keep your eyes peeled, RM.

[epilogue]

There's a really wonderful movie at Fantasia right now called Man Underground. I loved it. I really hope it gets distribution; it'll be a crime if it doesn't. Keep your eyes peeled, RM.

[Simple Torture]

Adaptation. is my favorite movie in which Nicolas Cage masturbates three times.

[@SkitchP]

The Distinguished Gentleman.